AdSense for Tracking
It’s nice to have independent verificationof Google’s numbers and also better
analysis tools of visitor behavior than the
AdSense reports provide. You now have
the option of linking your account to Google Analytics.
To get third-party information about
your traffic, a good starting place is
to visit Alexa. On Alexa, click the Traffic
Rankings tab. Enter your site domain in the
box and click Get Traffic Details.
The Related Info page for your site will open.
Next, in the Explore this Site box, click the
Traffic Details link.
Alexa metrics For Adsense
You can use the Alexa metrics as a realitycheck in terms of whether it agrees with
Google that your page views are going up
or down over time, but you cannot use
Alexa as an absolute measure of anything
because of how the Alexa statistics are compiled.
Alexa’s page-view metrics are based on
information uploaded from a small
toolbar, mostly installed by business users.
This information is notoriously flawed for
consumer sites, particularly ones without
high traffic.
Listening to Web Logs
Depending on your web host, you should
have access to a number of tools used to
generate usable information from your web
logs files. Web log analysis is the first and
best place to look for data in addition to that
supplied by Google.
If you are set in the AdSense program, you should:
• Track progress by regularly displaying reports—perhaps as often as daily—to
monitor your AdSense tips for Content and Search performance as well as AdSense for
Domains
• Use custom reports or URL channels to display results to get a better handle on
performance on different parts of your site or sites
• Download CSV files to crunch your own data
• Use the optimization tips provided to increase your AdSense revenue
• Check the Site Diagnostics page and fix any problems indicated
• Learn to use the web traffic analysis programs available to you to get a better understanding of how your site is performing in relation to the AdSense program
• If your business justifies the trouble (and expense), consider more robust web
analytic software
• Make sure you link your Google Analytics and Google AdSense accounts
Getting Open Directory Project Listings
The Open Directory Project -ODP is the most
important taxonomic directory on the
Web. Formally hosted and administered by
the Netscape division of AOL, the ODP is
run along the lines of an open source project
and is inspired by the Debian Social
Contract.
The credo behind the ODP is that web
automated search is ineffective and getting
worse, and that the small contingent of paid
editors at commercial web search engine
companies cannot keep up with the staggering
rate of change on the Web—decaying,
stagnant sites; link rot; new sites; sites intended
as search spam; and so on.
The ODP is run and maintained by a vast
army of volunteer editors. These editors
follow internal checks and balances to
preserve the integrity of the directory.
http://dmoz.org/guidelines for more
information about the ODP review
process and guidelines for site inclusion.
Here are some of the highlights of Google’s editorial strictures:
• Use proper spelling and grammar.
• Ad content and seo keywords must directly relate
to the destination web page.
• Local services must indicate their location in their ads.
• No exclamation points in the ad headline and only one in the ad text.
• No unnecessary capitalization or repetition.
